The shift-work industry, the hospital industry, much of the primary industry is rife with sleep deprived people, but the entertainment industry also pushes people far beyond their limits. In fact sleep deprivation and insomnia are becoming so entrenched in our 24/7 society, that the health cost and daily impact are mushrooming.

These two film clips highlight what happens behind the scenes of many of the movies we enjoy.

The first clip is a series of short interviews with well-known actors talking about their personal experiences in the sleep deprived film industry. Read More »

A lack of sleep can affect many aspects of a child’s life. Sleep deprivation can affect a child’s mood, behaviour and academic performance, writes Paula Goodyer. What’s the difference between a child who’s overtired and one with a behaviour disorder? Not a lot, says sleep specialist Dr Chris Seton, recalling a US experiment in which 50 children with ADHD were put together in a hall with 50 sleep deprived children – and sleep physicians and ADHD experts were asked to tell them apart.

How much sleep does your child get? How does a lack of sleep affect them? Read More »

When school officials in Lexington, Ky., decided to push back the start of middle school and high school by an hour, two things happened: the students reported getting more sleep, and traffic accidents involving teenagers went down.

The findings, reported in the December issue of The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, suggest that allowing students to get more sleep may have broader health effects. The study was conducted by Fred Danner and Dr. Barbara Phillips of the University of Kentucky.

The research does not establish conclusively that the change in school starting times led to the improvement in accident rates. But the study found a significant drop in accidents in Fayette County, where Lexington is located.

In April 1998, researchers surveyed almost 10,000 Lexington middle and high school students about their sleep habits. The survey was repeated a year later, when the starting times were moved to 8:30 for high school and 9 for middle school.

From one year to the next, the percentage of students who reported getting at least eight hours of sleep increased to 50 percent from 38 percent.

And in the two years after the school hours change, the average crash rates for 17- and 19-year-old drivers in the county went down 16 percent. In the rest of the state, they increased almost 8 percent.

A Government Survey Shows Who Gets the Most Sleep and Who Gets the Least

If you don’t get enough sleep, you have plenty of company. More than 11 percent of adults said there was not a single day in the previous month when they got enough shuteye, government researchers reported.

Another 17 percent reported insufficient sleep during half or more of the previous month, according to L.R. McKnight-Eily, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He and colleagues reported their findings in the Oct. 30 issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

Statistics suggest that a significant percentage of accidents are caused by human error. A major contributing factor in a number of these cases is fatigue. It is important to understand what fatigue is and how to deal with it. Dupre´Logistics hold their team accountable by measuring fatigue through Circadian Technologies’ CAS System.

The apnea patients of Dr. Marc L. Benton, a New Jersey pulmonologist (airways doctor,) were fitted with nasal positive airway pressure masks and told to wear them every night. Find attached some great interviews with his patients.

THIS rather alarming two-part doco about the science of sleep and sleep deprivation is likely to have viewers looking askance at co-workers, fellow road users and family members. The thesis is that a sleep deficit afflicting Western societies is responsible not only for soaring sales of caffe-lattes but road trauma, accidents and a massive taxpayer burden as the health system confronts the escalating problems engendered by chronic tiredness.

Current estimates would have it that one-third of people are dangerously sleep deprived and, as the two-parter says in this week’s introduction, people are getting on average 90 minutes’ less sleep a night than they did 100 years ago. It mightn’t sound like much, but scientists believe anything less than eight hours a night creates a sleep “debt” that must eventually be repaid.

Sleep deprivation is the number 1 killer in the West.

This might have been merely a bunch of white lab coats gesturing at charts, but there’s an attention-grabbing case study of a 23-year-old Canadian man who is experimenting with reducing his sleep to three hours a night. The results are – well, eye-opening – as his mind starts to close down and he falls asleep numerous times at the wheel without even realising it. Don’t know about you, but I’m taking to my doona immediately.

Circadian rhythm disorders are disruptions in a person’s circadian rhythm — a name given to the “internal body clock” that regulates the (approximately) 24-hour cycle of biological processes in animals and plants. The term circadian comes from Latin words that literally mean around the day. There are patterns of brain wave activity, hormone production, cell regeneration, and other biological activities linked to this 24-hour cycle.

Micro-sleep

The circadian “clock” in humans is located mainly in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which is a group of cells located in the hypothalamus (a portion of the brain). Circadian rhythms are important in determining human sleeping patterns.
What Causes Circadian Rhythm Disorders?

Circadian rhythm disorders can be caused by many factors, including:

Shift work
Pregnancy
Time zone changes
Medications
Changes in routine
Common Circadian Rhythm Disorders
Jet Lag or Rapid Time Zone Change Syndrome: This syndrome consists of symptoms including excessive sleepiness and a lack of daytime alertness in people who travel across time zones.
Shift Work Sleep Disorder: This sleep disorder affects people who frequently rotate shifts or work at night

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS): This is a disorder of sleep timing. People with DSPS tend to fall asleep at very late times and have difficulty waking up in time for work, school, or social engagements.

Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome: Advanced sleep phase syndrome is a disorder in which the major sleep episode is advanced in relation to the desired clock time. This syndrome results in symptoms of evening sleepiness, an early sleep onset, and waking up earlier than desired.
Non 24-Hour Sleep Wake Disorder: Non 24-hour sleep wake disorder is a condition in which an individual has a normal sleep pattern but lives in a 25-hour day. Throughout time the person’s sleep cycle will be affected by inconsistent insomnia that occurs at different times each night. People will sometimes fall asleep at a later time and wake up later, and sometimes fall asleep at an earlier time and wake up earlier.